The Hope Theatre has revealed its Spring Season, which will run from March until June. The season is filled with new writing and the London premieres of productions that have found success elsewhere in the UK but not yet been seen in the capital.
Phil Bartlett, artistic director of the Hope, said: ‘At the Hope we’re always looking for stories that are dramatic, surprising, and have something to say about the world we live in now. The plays that make up the spring season certainly meet this brief – though set in a variety of time periods and locations, and drawing on a vast array of theatrical styles, they all promise to deliver first-class fringe drama to provoke and entertain.’
The season opens with Cold, Dark Matters (12th – 23rd March), a story about the murky underwaters of a community in Cornwall and its latest resident, whose desire for a rural retreat may not be all it seems. Jack Brownridge Kelly’s play is a satirical dark comedy about rural life, isolation and faddism that comes to the Hope following sold-out performances in the South-West.
In Mother of Exiles (9th – 13th April), a young woman buys a bar in Brooklyn, New York, whilst saddled with a chaotic teenage accomplice. A drama about found family, platonic connection, and intimacy, Mother of Exiles is a compassion-fuelled new play by Bruno Magnanti and features Imogen Mackenzie, previously seen in the Hope’s in-house production The Moors.
London. Three musicians and their manager seal themselves inside an underground recording studio to complete a country-rock album, unaware that materials in the walls are driving them to the brink of insanity. In Everglade Studio (16th April – 4th May) is a ferocious comic thriller by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller featuring original music by Brimmer-Beller and Aveev Isaacson. This electric production follows a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer.
Taking A Love Pill at the End of the World (14th May – 1st June) is a speculative story about existing at the end. Couple Igg and Tom feel they have no future – therapy is going nowhere and environmental disaster is looming. Might their only option be to take a pill and fall in love? Not Quite Ready’s latest is a snappy two-hander that promises live cooking and apocalyptic visions.
Taking over the Hope for a week this March, improv group Make It Beautiful bring their weird and wonderful The Dream Machine (26th – 30th March) to Islington. This long-form improvisational show is created afresh each performance from audience members’ dreams, with the Dreamers bringing tales from their subconscious to life.
Funny, ephemeral, and heart-breaking, Odd Jobs (2nd – 6th April) is a captivating series of short plays excavating our relationship with work. Award-winning company Elegy’s production questions why humans can’t stop working and interrogates what people would be willing to do to pay the rent.
Rock, Paper, Scissors (7th – 11th May) is ‘a joyous farce’ about housemates Dylan and Lucy, whose relationship descends into unexpected chaos following a tragic accident at home. As the situation escalates and the stakes get higher, they use the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to make some life-changing decisions; but when your choices directly affect the outcome of a game, how much of it is ever really left up to chance? Chess Hayden’s script exposes the rawness of human nature, with the plot involving friends, lovers – and possible manslaughter…
Closing the Spring season, Rachel (4th – 8th June) is a raunchy and comic one-woman monologue about a career-driven woman navigating the ruthless currents of the corporate world. Written by François Lockhart and performed by LAMDA graduate Clara Courty-Zanca, the narrative unfolds against a backdrop of modern-day paradoxes and questions the choices we make in the face of social pressures and global challenges.
The Spring Season also sees the continuation of the Hope’s long-running program of two-night performances on Sundays and Mondays. Two-nighters in the season include A Bit of Me (17th & 18th March), in which a Love Island viewer is faced with a difficult decision upon recognising the face of one of the contestants; Am I Pretty When I Cry? (24th & 25th March), a one-woman play exploring the complex psychological after-effects of a sexual assault; Tides (7th & 8th April), which provides an insight into the world of a young man with autism; GRAVE (21st & 22nd April), an absurdist tragicomedy in which a grave is dug and must be filled; and, The King of Hollywood (28th & 29th April), about the life of actor Douglas Fairbanks, who almost single-handedly invented the action movie and was instrumental in the creation of the Oscars, Beverley Hills and even Batman.
Tickets for all productions are available through The Hope Theatre website.
